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Posts by Ben

Since the Liverpool Pilots Service was created in 1766, the pilots have risked their lives on a daily basis to ensure the safe passage of ships to and from Liverpool. There are many tales of bravery where a pilot’s actions have saved lives and cargo from disaster. Unfortunately there are also tales of tragedy, where the Pilot Service laments the loss of one (or many) of their own. On 28 December 2017, it will be the 100 year anniversary of the worst disaster to befall the Liverpool Pilots. This was the loss the Alfred H Read pilot boat in 1917. Read more…

Here is a post from Cath Senker, co-organiser of a special reunion event held recently at the Merseyside Maritime Museum:

“In June 1967, at the outbreak of the Six-Day War, 14 merchant ships were passing through the Suez Canal. As hostilities erupted, they were ordered to halt in the Great Bitter Lake. Although the war was brief, after it finished, the Egyptian government refused the ships permission to leave. Those ships remained stranded in the Suez Canal until June 1975.

Four of them were British-flagged, including three from Liverpool shipping lines: MS Melampus and MS Agapenor from Blue Funnel Line, and MS Scottish Star from Blue Star Line. Over the period, 3,000 seafarers served on the trapped ships in the middle of a war zone, maintaining the vessels and protecting their valuable cargos. Although they came from both sides of the Iron Curtain, they formed a close community. Read more…

Flags flying from one of the Suez Canal ships, 1967. Reproduced with permission of George Wharton.

On 1 June Merseyside Maritime Museum is hosting a special reunion event to mark the 50th anniversary of ships being stranded on the Suez Canal between 1967 and 1975. Three of the stranded ships were from Liverpool; MSMelampus and MSAgapenor from the Blue Funnel Line and MS Scottish Star from the Blue Star Line.

The maritime history department at Merseyside Maritime Museum have recently collected an object connected to the sinking of the TSS Yorkshire in 1939.

TSS Yorkshire was built in 1920 by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the Liverpool based Bibby Line. The ship was on her way to Liverpool from Rangoon as part of the allied convoy HG-3. The Dixon family had joined the ship at Gibraltar, including brother and sister Cyril (aged 15) and Maureen (aged 8), and their mother and father. On 17 October, 1939 the convoy was in the North Atlantic 160 miles off the north-west coast of Spain. That afternoon the convoy was attacked by the German U-boat U-37. Yorkshire was hit and sank with the loss of 58 lives. Read more…

Seafarers UK is a charity that helps people in the maritime community by providing vital support to seafarers in need and their families.

The charity does this by giving grants to projects and organisations that make a real difference to people’s lives, across the Merchant Navy, Fishing Fleets, Royal Navy and Royal Marines. In 2016 Seafarers UK gave grants totalling £2.5million to more than 70 maritime welfare charities. Read more…

Are you reading this blog on a computer, smartphone or tablet? Chances are it was brought to this country in a metal box on the back of a ship, along with your TV, clothes and most of your other possessions. Read more…

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appropriate permissions to use images have been sought. The opinions in each
blog are very much those of the individuals writing.